Why do some people think that they own the road outside their homes?

[Isitafullmoon]

I'm trying to get my head around the mentality of people who do this.

Once dh and I had to pull over somewhere, we weren't even getting out of the car we'd just pulled over to take a call sort of thing. We were outside some houses but not blocking anyone's drive or obstructing the road. We weren't parked illegally or on the pavement or anything like that.

No sooner had we pulled over but a quite aggressive man came out knocking on our car window and told us that we can't park outside his house and to move on. He wouldn't go until we left so we just moved and pulled over further up the road.

Another time we drove into a cul de sac to look at a house that was for sale, as we drove into the road, a woman came out shouting at us that we were 'not allowed' in here. Again this wasn't a private estate or a gated community just a normal cul de sac.

Then today I was turning around in a cul de sac when a woman came out shouting at me to go away and waving her arms. Again I was simply turning round not doing anything illegal or blocking anyone.

Are there people who spend their days waiting by the window just to go and shout at random people?

Are there people who spend their days waiting by the window just to go and shout at random people?

Yes, there are. My neighbour is one of them. When I'm feeling charitable I would say that she leads a very small, quite lonely life and so hyperfocuses on parking and it clearly causes her genuine (if irrational) anxiety if people park outside the house. However, I do not always feel so charitable, for instance when she interrupted my midwife's visit on day three postpartum to berate the midwife for parking perfectly legally...

Because they don't have a life and want some made up problems to get het up about.

Oh there are definitely people with too much time on their hands who become obsessive about parking, turning and cars in general. They seem to get "rules" into their head that are entirely made up by them.

I don’t mind people parking outside my house, I definitely don’t own it. Although, at times, people block my drive and it infuriates me beyond belief. When they come back they say they were ‘just nipping to get weighed at slimming world’. Meanwhile I’m late for work. I’m flabbergasted at their front and they think AIBU.

So I’m definitely a curtain twitcher, but if you leave me room to get off the drive park wherever you want!

Because it’s fucking annoying, that’s why.
We live in a cul de sac, every fucker who comes into it seems to park outside our house, even if they’re visiting 5 doors awsy, probably because there’s a large bush in my front garden.

It always seems to happen when I’m expecting a delivery or visitors or DH is due home and needs room to back on the drive in his van. My opposite neighbour parks across the bottom of her steep drive just to make things extra awkward.
We’ve had to take down a metre of wall, railings and put some extra paving down just so I can get on and off the drive because of how people park. Every house has a drive for at least 3 cars but they don’t fucking use them.

I had a man leap out of his house in his dressing gown suggesting other places I could park. I now park there as often as possible. We're both twats.

Spray your windscreen washer fluid.

Honestly if someone had the audacity to chap on my window to tell me to move, I’d take 10x longer. I’d do the call, check my socials and maybe order my Tesco shopping, and let them stand like a moron on the pavement.

Petty, yes, but these people are counting on people acquiescing.

We have a neighbour like this who literally runs out of the house when anyone even parks near her driveway, delivery drivers, people just stopping to pick people up as she states it prevents her reversing onto her driveway if they park too close. She’s been incredibly rude to a lot of people so I don’t even acknowledge her now. She’s clearly has a miserable life if she’s sat at home all day waiting to pounce on anyway that parks anywhere near her house. I actually feel sorry for her

My twat of a neighbour is like this. Public road no allocated parking spaces.... anywhere. Park whenever you can find a space......he had a go at my dad because he dared to park one"his" space......bear in mind my dad was 76 at the time 🤬🤬🤬

Because I want to park close to my home, probably for the same reasons people try to park close to the entrance of shops, gyms, schools etc. it’s more convenient.
I am fully aware I don’t own the road and wouldn’t shout, or wave my hands aggressively at anyone. I have been driving for a long time and I am yet to experience anyone doing what you are describing, let alone on 3 separate.

Because people take notice of them like you did and park further up the road.

Hell would've frozen over before I did that.

Ladies, don’t tolerate this!

Keep the window up, laugh at them in a pitying tone, spray the washer fluid like @Totototo says, and if they keep up their neurotic behaviour, film it.

Then post it on your local FB community page.

Some people do own the road outside their house.

But I get what you are saying 🤣

I have a friend who lived in a road where everyone had drives but my friend's house had 3 cars so I had to park down the road. I visited and parked a few doors down, not blocking anyone, not opposite a drive. When I was leaving a man from opposite came out and stood in his garden staring at me. Then a woman came out of the house I was parked outside, shouting and waving her arms at me. I just drove away! The same thing happened next time but the woman was shouting You can't park here it's my house!
According to my friend, these people didn't use the parking space in front of their houses but didn't want anyone else to use them. I made sure I parked there every time I visited. I ended up waving and shouting Hello! to them.

Definitely more prevalent with cul de sac dwellers. My brother lives in a cul de sac and the woman who lives in the house closest to the entrance is like traffic police, it's ridiculous. I'm pulling into the cul de sac to see my brother who lives there and will be parking on his driveway, she comes out and watches me with her arms crossed. It's insane.

Put a car sticker of a skull and biker gang on your window. Then take it off afterwards😂 Leather jacket. Fake face tattoos.

Make sure it’s not a dodgy area though!

We live in the middle of nowhere so it’s a bit worrying when people pull over just outside the house, Id guess that’s the thought of a lot of rural people. I wouldn’t get them to move but I would be hoping they’d move on

On private roads, ie not adopted by the council, the house owners actually DO own the road outside their house and other residents and visitors merely have a right of way over it.
Being able to park there is one compensation for paying council tax AND an annual contribution to the upkeep of the road.

I knew someone who did this who had early onset dementia and got very distressed by people parking outside their house and if no one was with them, they would go and knock on windows and tell people to move. They were young so it wouldn't necessarily have computed.

Just be careful about being too quick to judge someone as an arsehole. They may not be well. These are the sort of things that people can become obsessed with and mucking around by taking longer or refusing to move may end up in a violent confrontation because they won't understand why you aren't moving. It's not worth being assaulted over or causing someone so much distress when moving a couple of metres is less trauma for everyone.

NC28

*Ladies, don’t tolerate this!
Keep the window up, laugh at them in a pitying tone, spray the washer fluid like *says, and if they keep up their neurotic behaviour, film it.
Then post it on your local FB community page.

Filming people and putting them on Fb is what’s gone wrong with the world, it just breeds more aggression

In a lot of these cases the Police can get involved as they can lead to 'breaches of the peace'

I understand OP. I have a friend who lives on road like this. Can’t park here or there because it’s outside someone’s house. Meanwhile they all have drives and still think they own the pavement as well

we have to stop putting up with it frankly. They don’t own the road!

Where do you draw the line at this?

Obey every stranger who tells you to do something on the off-chance they may have early onset dementia?

Why would you do that?